In:Figurative Thought and Language in Action
Edited by Mario Brdar and Rita Brdar-Szabó
[Figurative Thought and Language 16] 2022
► pp. 259–284
Being in the same boat, in two ways
Conflict metaphors in health care
Published online: 28 July 2022
https://doi.org/10.1075/ftl.16.11kun
https://doi.org/10.1075/ftl.16.11kun
Abstract
In research on conflicts, the systematic study of metaphors is playing an increasingly prominent role. In the context of a U.S. – Swiss–Hungarian international collaboration investigating conflicts through interviews with healthcare professionals, the present chapter analyzes linguistic and conceptual metaphors in Hungarian interviews. The theoretical background for the analysis is provided by the cognitive theory of metaphor, while its methodology is based on MIPVU.
Moving away from linguistic representations, this study aims to analyze the role of metaphors in the conceptualization, interpretation, and management of conflicts. The chapter presents general, conventionalized orientational and ontological metaphors of conflict, also exploring the core metaphors of the metaphor families of competition and cooperation as well as correlations between conflicts and power structures.
Keywords: competition, cooperation, metaphor family, (re-)framing
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Conflicts and metaphors
- 3.Data and method
- 4.Conflict metaphors
- 4.1conflict is a container, conflict is motion
- 4.2conflict is an object
- 4.3conflict is a process/event
- 4.4Conflict metaphors – negative framing
- 4.4.1conflict is war, fight
- 4.4.2conflict is quarrelling
- 4.4.3conflict is a game
- 4.4.4conflict is poison
- 4.4.5conflict is a disease/pain
- 4.4.6conflict is fire
- 4.4.7conflict is a mess (crease/ball of thread)
- 4.5Conflict, power, metaphors
- 5.Conclusion
Notes References
References (59)
Benkő, L. (ChiefEd.) (1970). A magyar nyelv történeti-etimológiai szótára. [Historical-Etymological Dictionary of the Hungarian Language.] Budapest: Akadémia.
Bochatay, N., Bajwa N. M., Cullati, S., Muller-Juge, V., Blondon, K. S., Perron, N. J., Maitre, F., Chopard, P., Vu, N. V., Kim, S., Savoldelli, G. L., Hudelson, P., & Nendaz, M. R. (2017). A Multilevel analysis of professional conflicts in health care teams: Insight for future training. Academic Medicine, 92(11), 84–92.
Bochatay, N., Kuna, Á., Csupor, É., Pintér, J. N., Muller-Juge, V., Hudelson, P., Nendaz, M. R., Csabai, M., Bajwa, N. M., & Kim, S. (2021). The role of power in health care conflict: Recommendations for shifting toward constructive approaches. Academic Medicine, 96(1), 134–141.
Cleary, C., & Packard, T. (1992). The use of metaphors in organizational assessement and change. Group and Organization Management, 17(3), 229–241.
Coleman, P. T. (2014). Intractable conflict. In: M. Deutsch, & P. T. Coleman, & E. C. Marcus (Eds.), The handbook of conflict resolution: Theory and practice (pp. 708–744). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Creed, A. & Nacey, S. (2021). Qualitative and quantitative examination of metaphorical language use in career-life preparedness. In W. Murphy, & J. Tosti-Kharas (Eds.), Handbook of research methods in careers (pp. 283–298). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.
Crum, T. F. (1987). The magic of conflict: Turning a life of work into a work of art. New York: Touchstone Book.
Csupor, E., & Kuna, A., & Pinter, J. N., & Kaló, Zs., & Csabai, M. (2017). Konfliktustípusok és konfliktuskezelés magyar egészségügyi dolgozók körében [Types of conflicts and conflict management among Hungarian healthcare workers]. Orvosi Hetilap, 158(16), 625–633.
Cullati, S., Bochatay, N., Maître, F., Laroche, T., Muller-Juge, V., Blondon, K. S., Perron, N. J., Bajwa, N, M., Vu, N. V., Kim, S., & Savoldelli, G. L., Hudelson, P., Chopard, P., & Nendaz, M. R. (2019). When team conflicts threaten quality of care: A study of health care professionals’ experiences and perceptions. Mayo Clinic Proceedings: Innovations, Quality & Outcomes, 3(1), 43–51.
Deutsch, M. (2014). Cooperation, competition and conflict. In M. Deutsch, & P. T. Coleman, & E. C. Marcus (Eds.), The handbook of conflict resolution: Theory and practice (pp. 3–28). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Deutsch, M., & Coleman, P. T. (2014). Some guidelines for developing a creative approach to conflict. In M. Deutsch, & P. T. Coleman, & E. C. Marcus (Eds.), The handbook of conflict resolution: Theory and practice (pp. 478–489). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Ellison, S. S. (2002). Taking the war out of our words: The art of powerful non-defensive communication. Berkeley: CA: Bay Tree.
French J. R. P., & Raven, B. (1959). The bases of social power. In Cartwright, D. (Ed), Studies in social power (pp. 150–167). Ann Arbor, MI: Institute for Social Research.
Gabel, S. (2012). Power, leadership and transformation: the doctor’s potential for influence. Medical Education, 46, 12, 1152–1160.
Gibbs, R. W. Jr. (1999). Taking metaphor out of our heads and putting it into the cultural world. In R. W. Gibbs, Jr. & G. Steen (Eds.), Metaphor in cognitive linguistics (pp. 145–166). Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Gibbs, R. W. Jr., & Franks, H. (2002). Embodied metaphor in women’s narratives about their experiences with cancer. Health Communication, 14(2), 139–165.
Goffman, E. 1974. Frame analysis: An essay on the organization of experience. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Hall, P. (2005). Interprofessional teamwork: professional cultures as barriers. Journal of Interprofessional Care, 19(1), 188–196.
Hamburger, Y., & Itzhayek, U. (1998). Metaphors and organizational conflicts. Social behaviour and Personality 26, 4, 383–398.
Hocker, J. L., & Wilmot, W. W. (2017). Interpersonal conflict. 10th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill Education.
Hodgkin, P. (1985). Medicine is war: And other medical metaphors. British Medical Journal 291(6511), 1820–1821.
Holland, D., & Quinn, N. (Eds.) (1987). Cultural models in language and thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Janss, R., Rispens, S., Segers, M., & Jehn, K. A. (2012). What is happening under the surface? Power, conflict and the performance of medical teams. Medical Education 46(9), 838–849.
Kilman, R. H., & K. W. Tomas (1975). Interpersonal conflict-handling behavior as reflections of Jungian personality dimensions. Psychological Reports 37(3), 971–980.
Kim S., Buttrick, E., Bohannon, I., Fehr, R., Frans, E., & Shannon, S. E. (2016). Conflict narratives from the health care frontline: A conceptual model. Conflict Resolution Quarterly 33, 3, 255–277.
Kim, S., Bochatay, N., Relyea-Chew, A., Buttrick, E., Amdahl, C. & Kim, L. (2017). Individual, interpersonal, and organisational factors of healthcare conflict: A scoping review. Journal of Interpersonal Care 31(3), 282–290.
Kövecses, Z. (1999). Metaphor. Does it constitute or reflect cultural models. In R. W. Gibbs, Jr., & G. Steen (Eds.), Metaphor in cognitive linguistics (pp. 167–188). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
(2005). Metaphor in culture: Universality and variation. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press.
Krauss, R. M., & Morsella, E. (2014). Communication and conflict. In M. Deutsch, P. T. Coleman, & E. C. Marcus (Eds.), The handbook of conflict resolution: Theory and practice (pp. 168–181). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Kreindler, S. A., Dowd, D. A., Star, N. D., & Gottschalk, T. (2012). Silos and social identity: the social identity approach as a framework for understanding and overcoming divisions in health care. Milbank Quarterly 90(2), 347–374.
Kuper, A., Veinot, P., Leavitt, J., Levitt, S., Li, A., Goguen, J., Schreiber, M., Richardson, L., & Whitehead, C. R. (2017). Epistemology, culture, justice and power: non-bioscientific knowledge for medical training. Medical Education 51(2), 158–173.
Lakoff, G., & Turner, M. (1989). More than cool reason: A field guide to poetic metaphor. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Lakoff, G. (1987). Women, fire, and dangerous things: What categories reveal about the mind. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
LeBaron, M. (2014). The alchemy of change: Cultural fluency in conflict. In M. Deutsch, P. T. Coleman, & E. C. Marcus (Eds.), The handbook of conflict resolution: Theory and practice (pp. 581–603). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Leever, A. M., Hulst, M. V., Berendsen, A. J., Boendemakek, P. M., Roodenburg, J. L. N., & Pols, J. (2010). Conflicts and conflict management in the collaboration between nurses and physicians – A qualitative study. Journal of Interprofessional Care, 24(6), 612–624. .
McCorkle, S., & Mills, H. L. (1992). Rowboat in a hurricane: Metaphors of interpersonal conflict management. Communication Reports 5(2), 57–66.
Mitchell, G., & Ferguson-Paté, M., & Richards, J. (2003). Exploring an alternative metaphor for nursing. Relinquishing military images and language. Nursing Leadership 16(1), 48–58.
Morgan, P. S. (2008). Competition, cooperation, and interconnection: ‘Metaphor families’ and social systems. In G. Kristiansen, & R. Dirven (Eds.), Cognitive sociolinguistics: language variation, cultural models, social system. (pp. 483–514). Berlin/New York: De Gruyter.
Oravecz, Cs, Varadi, T., & Sass, B. (2014). The Hungarian Gigaword Corpus. In N. Calzolari, K. Choukri, T. Declerck, H. Loftsson, B. Maegaard, J. Mariani, A. Moreno, J. Odijk, & S. Piperidis (Eds.), LREC 2014: Ninth International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (pp. 1719–1723). Lisbon: European Language Resources Association (ELRA).
Paradis, E., & Whitehead, C. R. (2015). Louder than words: power and conflict in interprofessional education articles, 1954–2013. Medical Education, 49(4), 399–407.
Pusztai, F., Gerstner, K., Juhász, J., Kemény, G., Szőke, I., & Váradi, T. (2003). Magyar értelmező kéziszótár. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó.
Rahim, M. A., & Bonoma, T. V. (1979). Managing organizational conflict: A model for diagnosis and intervention. Psychological Reports, 44(3), 1323–1344.
Sara, K., Bochatay, N., Relyea-Chew, A., Buttrick, E., Amdahl, C., Kim, L., Frans, E., Mossanen, M., Khandekar, A., Fehr, R. & Lee, Y. (2017). Individual, interpersonal, and organisational factors of healthcare conflict: A scoping review. Journal of Interprofessional Care 31(3), 282–290.
Schank, R., & Abelson, R. (1977). Scripts, plans, goals and understanding. An inquiry into human knowledge structures. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Semino, E., Heywood, J., & Short, M. (2004). Methodological problems in the analysis of metaphors in a corpus of conversations about cancer. Journal of Pragmatics, 36(7), 1271–1294.
Semino, E. & Demjén, Zs., & Demmen, J. (2018). An integrated approach to metaphor and framing in cognition, discourse, and practice, with an application to metaphors for cancer. Applied Linguistics 39(5), 625–645.
Shore, B. (1996). Culture and mind: cognition, culture and the problem of meaning. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Simon, G., Bajzát, T., Ballagó, J., Havasi, Zs., Roskó, M., & Szlávich, E. (2019). Metaforaazonosítás magyar nyelvű szövegekben: egy módszer adaptálásáról. [Metaphor identification in Hungarian texts: on the adaptation of a method.] Magyar Nyelvőr, 143(2), 223–247.
Steen, G. (1999). From linguistic to conceptual metaphors in five steps. In R. W. Gibbs Jr., & G. Steen (Eds.), Metaphor in cognitive linguistics. (pp. 57–77). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Steen, G., & Gibbs, R. W. (1999). Introduction. In R. W. Gibbs Jr., & G. Steen (Eds.), Metaphor in cognitive linguistics (pp. 1–7). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Steen, G. J., Dorst, A. G., Herrmann, B. J., Kaal, A. A., Krennmayr, T., & Pasma, T. (2010). A Method for linguistic metaphor identification. From MIP to MIPVU. Amsterdam/Philadephia: John Benjamins.
Stein, L. I., Watts, D. T., & Howel, T. (1990). The doctor-nurse game revisted. New England Journal of Medicine. 322(8), 546–549.
Turner, M. (1987). Death is the mother of beauty: Mind, metaphor, criticism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Weaver, R. (2013). Games, civil war and mutiny: metaphors of conflict for the nurse-doctor relationship in medical television programmes. Nursing Inquiry 20(4), 280–292.
